The Northwestern Lehigh softball team punched its ticket to the District 11 playoffs early and currently has a hold on the front row, center seat by posting a 10-1 record through the first half of the season.

The next-best team in Class 4A is Bethlehem Catholic at 5-2 overall with Blue Mountain (9-1) third.

The Tigers also have the best seat in the house in the Colonial League standings with a perfect 7-0 record. Last season, Northwestern went to the finals in both the league and district playoffs but fell short of championships in both. This year’s team plans to take that next step.

The team put together back-to-back shutouts recently with a 4-0 win over Palisades and a 5-0 win over the Saucon Valley Panthers. In both games, sophomore Emma Freeman threw a complete game and allowed a combined eight hits while striking out 17 hitters, 15 of which came against the Panthers.

Demonstrating how effective Freeman was, she threw 150 pitches in a win over Palmerton earlier this month but needed just 170 to get the two shutout wins.

To beat Saucon Valley (1-6 Colonial, 1-6 overall), the Tigers opened with a four-run first inning. Izzy Akelaitis had three hits in the game starting with a first inning single that put Northwestern up 2-0 after Rylee McGinley singled, stole second and third and Sage Toman walked and stole second. Two outs later, Northwestern had runners on second and third for Shelby Mitman who singled to right to drive in both runners, staking the Lady Tigers to a 4-0 lead.

Akelaitis scored again in the fifth after she doubled, and Abby Dunstan singled through the right side of the infield to make it 5-0. McGinley and Akelaitis both finished with a pair of steals in the game as Northwestern swiped six bases overall.

Hosting Palisades (4-2, 5-3), Northwestern had just five hits, four of which were singles, but took advantage of four Lady Pirates errors in the game and again used its speed on the basepaths, stealing five bases. Dunstan had two hits, scored twice and stole two bases for Northwestern Lehigh.

Dunstan’s first run of the day came after she singled, and Freeman followed with a double to left. Northwestern used errors on back-to-back plays for a second inning run and a 2-0 lead.

Ella Bressi singled and later scored on a single by Toman in the fifth and Dunstan scored her second run in the sixth when she led off with a single, went to second on an error, stole third and then scored when Palisades was called for catcher’s interference with Bressi at the plate, capping the scoring in the 4-0 win.

Riding a five-game winning streak, Northwestern hosts Pen Argyl (1-4, 4-4) and wraps up the week against Wilson (4-2, 4-3). Next week, the Tigers face fellow division leader Notre Dame – Green Pond (5-2, 5-3) on Thursday and Northern Lehigh (3-2, 4-2) on Friday.